Lady Gaga

While her former Housewives costars continue to bicker on Bravo,Bethenny Frankel continues her attempt at world domination by gracing the latest cover of Forbes magazine.

The issue is fitting for the Bethenny Ever After star as it lists the top 100 most powerful celebrities (Lady Gaga takes the #1 spot from Oprah this year). Bethenny comes in at #42 after earning an estimated $55 million from May 2010 to 2011.

Forbes states Bethenny “represents a new breed of media-savvy entrepreneurs, who see reality television not as an outlet to feed their narcissism, but as airtime to promote their products.” Bethenny admits, “What’s the point of being on TV if you don’t have something to sell?” Below are excerpts from Bethenny’s cover story –

How Much Did Bethenny Earn? – According to Forbes, Bethenny sold her Skinnygirl drink line to Fortune Brands’ Beam Global for $100 million and not the widely reported $120 mil. The deal features a multi-year payout. When you add in the sales from her expanding line of Skinnygirl products, sources close to Bethenny reveal she earned an estimated $55 million in the past 12 months (Bethenny refused to confirm the numbers). That amount is huge, especially in comparison to the estimated $700,000 she earned from Bravo for her reality show. Bethenny makes it clear this mega success is all still new to her. “Seriously,” she reveals, “it wasn’t until two years ago that I made more than my assistant.”

Growing Up Bethenny – Growing up on New York’s Long Island as the child of top-ranked horse trainer Bobby Frankel, her childhood was far from a fairytale. Bethenny grew up with multiple divorces, allegations of childhood neglect, 13 different schools, and two cross-country moves. “I had my first drink when I was 7 years old; I was betting at the track by 8,” she recalls. “My father never called me on my birthday. He never congratulated me or told me he was proud,” she says, tearing up. Bethenny would go on to attend NYU, graduating with a degree in communications and psychology.

Can Bethenny Crack a Billion? – Bethenny reveals her goal is to turn the Skinnygirl empire into a billion-dollar business. In addition to selling her Skinnygirl drink line, she also has a number of other “Skinnygirl” products in the works. And despite selling the drink line, Bethenny still retains the rights to use Skinnygirl for anything she wishes. “It would be great for Beam to sell Skinnygirl shot glasses as a complement to the cocktail,” she jokes. “But they can’t. Only I can.” New products in the works include a line of Skinnygirl nutritional supplements, with partner Matt Hesse, which has already seen wholesale orders topping $1 million in the first quarter of 2011. Her shapewear is also predicted to bring in $5 million this year (it makes its QVC debut in August). Also in the works — an online personal-training service, a fourth book and a skin-care line called Skinnygirl Face & Body. She is also contemplating soft drinks, sauces and a children’s clothing line.

“It’s a formula,” says Bethenny of the successful brands she launches with strategic partners. “They’re the expert, the formulator, manufacturer. I’m the marketer, the media person, the face–and we each know our roles.” You can read more on Bethenny’s cover story on Forbes.

Meanwhile, following her second season of BEA, Bethenny reveals she plans to lay low until filming on the third season begins in July. “I have really checked out of my own life a lot,” she told PEOPLE. “I’m laying low. I really hit the wall going 90 miles an hour.” She adds, “We’re starting filming in July for season 3, and I need the hiatus.”

TELL US – THOUGHTS ON BETHENNY’S FORBES ARTICLE? DO YOU THINK SHE CAN CRACK A BILLION?

On Wednesday’s episode of American Idolthe Final Four remain and things got Gagalicious as Lady Gaga descended upon the competition from her home planet Gagalore, sans pants, to mentor the remaining contestants on glitz, glam, and all things related to being a truly fantastic performer. The show’s theme which seemed to be inspirations or legends, was about as hard to figure out as Lady Gaga herself, and had the Idol finalists choosing any song that inspires them and another from legendary songwriting duo Leiber & Stoller.

For the most part the judges felt each artist made his or her mark on the songs they chose. James Durbin nailed both his performances – especially Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin” and Randy Jackson felt he was “having a moment” each time he sang.Haley Reinhardt covered Michael Jackson’s “Earth Song,” in round one, but had some difficulties since the song just wasn’t really compatible with her vocal range – Randy said it sounded like “screaming.” In the second round Haley majorly redeemed herself with a performance of Ben E. King‘s “I Who Have Nothing”, which got a standing ovation from the judges – another one! Haley’s big rock n roll voice is certainly perfect for the classics.

Country cutie Scotty McCreery – who seemingly can do no wrong on Idol – had two high notes with his performances: an emotionally charged rendition Alan Jackson’s of “Where Were You” that included him playing guitar and a hilarious Gaga-ized version of The Coasters’ “Young Blood.” Of course, the saucy humor he brought performing to his girlfriend, “the microphone” excited judge Steven Tyler who exclaimed: “You made Gaga’s yaya go lala.” Um… I’m not sure what a yaya is but something tells me it might not be family friendly! Keep it in check, Steven. Also, going Gaga was blue-plate special Lauren Alaina, whose performance featured a sparkle-encrusted ensemble that matched her spunky personality, and an amazing rendition of Elvis Presley’s “Trouble” which Jennifer Lopez dubbed “really, really good!”

Thursday night’s results show started with Jlo experiencing her weekly fashion fiasco with some scary drop-crotch MC Hammer looking pants as she walked out on stage and I think Steven was wearing a jacket with J.Lo’s face on it. Not sure – but something crazy was happening there!

With a whopping 72 million plus votes cast to determine who would be getting the deluxe trips home, Ryan Seacrest announced Lauren was the first person to make it into the Top Three. And then Idol teased us with not one but two celebrity performances and a sneak peak of Steven’s new very un-Aerosmith video. Seriously – I couldn’t stand the suspense! Ryan, finally, got around to announcing the rest of the results and Haley moved into the second safe spot. The final spot went to none other than Scotty, meaning the teenage girl army was out in full-force voting furiously by any means necessary.

Sweet, sensitive James was sent home leaving Jennifer in tears. James departed by serenading us with an emotional version of Paul McCartney’s “Maybe I’m Amazed” and reminding us to “give metal a chance!” James – America will totally give metal a chance and I agree with J.Lo, you are “magical!”

Next week the final three get to arrive via private jet for first-class hometown heroes visits. Do you think James should have been sent home? Who do you think will make the final two?

In an attempt to raise money in honor of World AIDS Day, the stupid/narcissistic celebrities agreed to a digital death until $1,000,000 was raised, meaning no tweeting or facebooking. Kim K and others even took coffin glamour shots to show the public just how serious they are about the cause.

Things however took a quick turn for disastrous when the donations didn’t come pouring in as expected. While many thought the amount would be raised within 2 days, less than $300,000 had been raised 6 days into the charity stunt.

The campaign started to get a ton of negative press and the celebs were starting to feel the side effects as they couldn’t make their promotional/sponsored tweets. Kim K reportedly earns up to $10,000 a tweet. “It’s the worst mismanagement of star power I’ve ever seen in my life,” a source close to the program told the NYPost.

As of Monday morning (Dec. 6), the donations were still under $300,000. And then something mysterious happened as a few hours later, the donations totaled over $1,000,000, raising a couple of eyebrows.

E! news is now reporting the celebs were able to reach their goal all thanks to billionaire pharmaceutical executive Stewart Rahr, who agreed to give $500,000. We’re guessing the other $200,000 came from the back accounts of the celebs.

Despite the major fail and negative press that followed the charity stunt, Alicia Keys, who organized the event, and the other celebs involved consider it to be a major success. “From the bottom of my heart, thank you to all of the fans, friends and artists who stood together for this cause and saved real lives,” said Keys. “I am humbled by the outpour of support from everyone.”

“I am back from the dead! Thank you all so much for your donations and contributions! I have missed u all so much!!!” tweeted Kim K Monday afternoon. While most of the celebs followed the rules and kept their promise, R&B singer Usher did go back on his word as he resumed his tweeting two days ago.

Another source tells the post most of the celebrities are embarrassed. “Some stars thought the money would be raised in 24 hours, and were embarrassed that critics said it proves nobody cares about their Twitter presence.”

In other Kim K news, she is denying a report by MediaTakeOut that alleged she was pregnant by rapper Kanye West. “The rumors are absolutely not true,” Kardashian tells PEOPLE. “I’m not pregnant.” Good to know Kimmy.

TELL US – WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE LATEST? ARE YOU AS DISAPPOINTED AS WE ARE THAT THESE CELEBS CAN NOW TWEET AGAIN?

A few days ago, Kim Kardashian, Ryan Seacrest, Lady Gaga, Alicia Keys and a slew of other celebrities announced they would be dying digitally starting Dec. 1 all in the name of charity.

To get things going for the stupid/narcissistic charity stunt, some of the celebs even decided to play dead by posing in a coffin. See above. The goal was the celebrities would stop tweeting and facebooking until $1,000,000 was raised in honor of World AIDS Day. The organizers promised “everyone will be back online and tweeting in no time” once they reached their $1 million goal.

Sounds like a great plan right? Because surely with stars like Kim Kardashian, Ryan Seacrest and Lady Gaga, the $1 million would be raised within a day. Well, we thought wrong as the stunt seems to have backfired.

It is now 3 days into the charity event and as of Friday morning, the latest donation tally on the official buylife.org website shows that only $183,268 has been raised, meaning it might be a very long while before we see any new tweets from the likes of Kim K. The charity is still over $800,000 shy of their goal.

A new report by TheWrap tries to examine what went wrong with this charity stunt. A key factor might be the fact that the organizers put a $10 minimum on donations. The economy has yet to fully recover and most people might be more inclined to give with a lower minimum.

Another critical error is the fact that the digitally dead celebrities are not able to promote the cause for which they lay dead for, you know, because they are dead and cannot tweet. A look at Kim Kardashian’s twitter page shows her last tweet, to promote the charity event, was made two days ago.

The biggest shocker of it all is that this charity stunt is failing in spite of Kim K’s 5 million followers on twitter in addition to Lady Gaga’s 7 million followers. Guess these celebrities overestimated their clout. This latest stunt might end up costing Kim K financially as she gets paid to promote a number of products and events via tweeter, and most of her endorsement deals require her to tweet about the products.

TELL US – WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS CHARITY FLOP? ARE YOU SURPRISED?

Just weeks after rumors of being the next Bachelorette hit, comes news that reality Tv QueenKate Plus Eight star Kate Gosselin is actually in talks to appear on the next edition of the Celebrity Apprentice.

“The producers of Celebrity Apprentice are very interested in Kate,” a source close to the show tells HollywoodLife. “And she has expressed interest as well, but there are a lot of kinks to work out before anything concrete can happen.”

Those kinks include the fact that “It’s a six-week commitment and her kids are not allowed to be part of the show; the Apprentices work every day, Monday through Sunday,” the insider explains. “Many people get to the final stages and almost do the show, but it then turns out that they are unable to appear because of scheduling conflicts.”

Adding more fuel to the fire is the fact that the above picture with Donald Trump and his wife was just taken outside of Lady Gaga’s July 7 concert at NYC’s Madison Square Garden.

“If they can make it work, they will,” the source finishes. “They both want it to happen.”

TELL US: IS KATE GOSSELIN PUSHING IT IF SHE DECIDES TO ADD ONE MORE REALITY SHOW TO HER RESUME?